At Chantilly, animals invade the famous library and Claude Lorrain strikes our eye with his drawings

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Falcon hunt treaty copied for Francesco Sforza, 1450-1466, bought by due d’Aumale in 1856, © IRHT-CNRS Château de Chantilly

There are two exhibitions at Chateau de Chantilly which might seem very intellectual but are actually a great source of pleasure. One, “Bestiaire médiéval” reveals all the imaginary and real animals painted in Medieval times in hunting treaties, fables, religious books… The donkey and the beef in Bethlehem, Jonas and the whale or other symbolic animals, have all been taken out of their shelves by curator Marie Pierre Dion and area. poetic and exciting vision of illuminated books. “The Riches Heirs due Duc de Berry”, which you can consult on a screen includes many of these fantasy beasts. Read More

At Musée Guimet, “Guardians of time” celebrate the year of France-China in red!

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Jiang Qiong Er, is dressed in a Shang Xia shall, the design brand she created for Hermès and stands in front of one of the red pillars of the hall

Yannick Lintz, the dynamic president of Musée Guimet, is a fervent lover of China and to celebrate President Xi Jinping’s visit to France on 6-7 May,  for the inauguration of the France China Year, she asked Shanghai artist Jiang Qiong Er to disguise her museum into a bright red monument. It is even visible from the Eiffel Tower! The façade of the 19th century building is entirely covered with red grottos, where mythological Chinese spirits are hidden. And an AI installation makes them come out of hiding three times a day at noon, 6 pm and 8 pm. I wonder if this will create many car crashes on place d’Iéna? Inside the museum, columns are painted in red and a meditation room is set on the top cupola with 5 000 tea bricks which smell wonderfully. The show is a wonderful combination of the past artistic traditions and contemporary technics.Read More

“Le Tableau volé”, a great film on the world of auctioneers…

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Louise Chevillotte plays the devious intern Aurore

The teasers were great for “Le Tableau Volé” and on the first day of screening, my favorite movie theatre, Les Cinq Caumartin, was fully booked. It was May Day and nothing else was open in Paris except cinemas… So I rushed to see this story on a smart auctioneer played by the excellent Alex Lutz, who discovers a painting, The Sunflowers, by Egon Schiele, in a modest house near Strasbourg. The film directed by Pascal Bonitzer is full of surprises and develops into a series of devious characters and events. The language (French) is modern since all the protagonists are 25-40, and the plot, quite classical, is uplifted by fantastic acting. The final scene with Arcadi Radeff, who plays an innocent factory worker confronted with an enormous amount of money, is fabulous and made me cry… This is a feel good film which sounds perfectly right on the world of auctioneers. Read More

Marie and Felix Bracquemond, Fondation Custodia, ADOR in Versailles… so much to see and so little time

parisdiaArt, Auction, Happy moments, Performing arts3 Comments

Felix Bracquemond, Portrait of Marie Bracquemond with a drawing, est.5 000 to 7 000€

On Tuesday April 30 at 2.30pm, Artcurial is auctioning Marie and Felix Bracquemond‘s drawings, paintings and Gobelins tapestries kept in the family until now. And also various services of plates, made by Creil et Montereau in 1866 and Haviland. This exceptional couple who met at the Louvre, were very close to the Impressionists. While Felix was mostly a printer (I discovered him at Henry Loyrette’s exhibition of Degas prints at Bibliothèque Nationale last year), Marie was a respected artist along Mary Cassatt and Eva Gonzalès. The variety of their talents is visible in this sale, where prices seem quite low and some of the ceramics made with Théodore Deck and Ernest Chaplet are brilliant. I spotted an enamelled turquoise stoneware cup (800-1000€) and an earthenware plate with a naked lady,  “Le Verger” from 1876 at 5 000€-8000€. Also a silk embroidery by Felix from 1905 “Sous bois au Printemps” (1 500€-2 000 €) and a self portrait by Marie (1 000€-1 500€). Read More

Galliera, celebrates the Olympics and Paolo Roversi’s photographs

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Gebr. Rodeck Wien, “Hunting Dogs” folding fan, circa 1880, painted leather

“La Mode en mouvement” (fashion on the move) is the second exhibition devoted to the permanent collections of the Palais Galliera, on sports and fashion. And what struck me this time is the amount of fans which were used in the XIX th and XX th century as well as the extraordinary swim ware collections developed by Jacques Heim in the 1930’s. From Victorian traveling outfits to fencing clothes and golf shoes, the show enlightens our view of women’s sport life at the beginning of the XX th century. And the collection of bathing suits and beach outfits including Madame Grès‘s is quite fun.Read More

Isabelle Langlois is a whimsical jeweler near place Vendôme

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Isabelle Langlois showing off her Peridot rings

It was a fun occasion, the cocktail party at Isabelle Langlois‘ jewelry shop next to Place Vendôme. The theme was Peridot, the green semi precious stone, and she was dressed in a perfect combination of purple and spring green. The hors d’oeuvre were all pale green and the drinks were mojitos and champagne with a green touch. We met some years ago while both working for Condé Nast in Paris, and reunited recently through golfing friends. She is a great designer and her rings, earrings, and pins made in Thailand by her brother, are more ravishing one than the other. Read More

The Jeu de Paume is closing from May 12 to September 28, and announces a brilliant season for the end of the year

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Bertille Bak, La Brigada, 12 mn video of shoe shiners demonstrating on the streets of la Paz

Due to the Olympics, which will bar access to place de la Concorde and part of the Tuileries gardens all summer, the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume has to close down on May 12. So if you have not been yet, make sure to see the fabulous Tina Modotti exhibition and Bertille Bak (b.1983) “Out of Breath” who plays on the representation of marginalized “invisible” communities with her films and photographs set in Bolivia, Saint Nazaire, India, Thailand and Madagascar for “Minor Miner” and Morocco for “Entertainment Factory”. I particularly liked “La Brigada”, her shelves covered with colorful shoe-shine boxes from La Paz, which become true works of art as they are transformed by their owners, and the video where the shoe shiners walk on metallic noisy buckets to demonstrate on the streets. Read More

Back to New York after six years and full of new discoveries

parisdiaArchitecture, Art, Books5 Comments

The botanical gardens in Brooklyn were a pure enchantment with their cherry trees in bloom

I had not returned to the city since the pandemic and went to attend the Memorial for writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, Ted Morganwho died last December. It took place at the Century Club and was mostly a family affair, with his daughter Amber de Gramont (who recently retrieved her family name) and his son Gabriel Morgan, both speaking in a very sensitive and literary way of him as a father. His wife Eileen Bresnahan read a beautiful poem and his grandchildren and nephews, the artist George and his twin, film director Michel Negroponte, added to the glamour. Another niece, the author Nina de Gramont was there with her husband, David Gessner, also a writer, and Clement Wood son of the Paris Review International editor, brought some of the literary French past with him. The cultural event of the week was “the Harlem Renaissance” exhibition at the Metropolitan museum which I saw just after learning of Faith Ringgold‘s death at 93. The extraordinary artist, who was exhibited at Musée Picasso exactly a year ago, was born in Harlem in 1930, just at the time of the Renaissance… The show is a mix of fabulous portraits by Winold Reiss, Laura Wheeler Waring, Archibald J. Motley. Jr and Jacob Lawrence or William H. Johnson. But there were also very mediocre ones mixed among the excellent photos by James Van Der Zee. I would call the exhibition unedited or wanting to show too much?Read More